Streets of Rage

"The first attempt at a decent side-scroller."

Streets of Rage was a good idea, but it lacked a lot of variety. But newer versions of the game have spiced it up, so you could call this version the stepping stone to a great side-scroller.

Game Play

The game just lacked variety in moves and in enemies. You only have three moves, punch, kick, and a special attack in which your buddies from the police department fire fireballs
and a ring of fire at the enemy (which oddly enough went around the entire screen but only hurt the enemies, weird). But the bazooka attack can only be used once per life, so it
is not much help. You could pick up items like a bat, glass bottle, and pepper (I think it was pepper because you throw it at the enemy and they start to sneeze and cough so you can get in free hits). You just walk down the street or beach (two of the levels in the game) and beat up guys that come after you and they are pretty easy to take down because
they try and be sneaky and get around you but you just walk up and smack 'em. They are all pretty much the same and most of them look the same. The only difference is the harder and faster ones are different colors. A bad point of the game is that the enemies in the levels are easy but then when you get to the boss he is super cheap. You try and walk up to attack but he/she is either too fast or they have longer range than you and smack you away. You try to beat them with your special but you only get one of those per life and it only takes a little less then half of the bosses energy. Then you get your friend and play two player but they just send in two bosses! Playing two player is a little more fun and it makes the last bosses a little easier. They try and spice it up a little with added traps in a few of the closer to the end levels. They have machines that try and smash you and also they throw carts at you. You have a few continues however and after about six or seven levels you finally make it to the final boss. You probably don't win though. He sends guys after you while he attacks and he also has a gun. No fair! By the time you get there you have probably wasted your continues and most of your lives. It doesn't take long for him to win. Hmph!

Story

Crime and corruption has hit the city into submission. An evil crime boss has taken over and the innocent are doomed. However, three former policemen have decided to stand up and do something about it. Two men and a woman are you choices. Along with the help of a few other policemen and their bazookas, you go up against a giant army of criminals
to try and take down the crime boss before any further damage is done. The only question is, Can you do it?

Audio/Video

The first thing I noticed was that certain spots of the levels are choppy. It is also especially choppy when there are more than five or six guys on the screen. Not much detail into the enemies either, although you can somewhat tell them apart. The sound was actually decent. Background music is different for each level and they have sound effects for breaking glass, punch and kick sounds, and sounds for when the enemies and you die. This category is pretty average and doesn’t hurt or help the game play that much.

Replay

This is another category that the game doesn’t do well in. You play the game a few times and try to beat the last boss. If you don’t succeed, you just get sick of the game and don’t play it for a long time. If you do beat it, you never play it again because it’s just average and there are plenty of better side-scrollers out there.

Overall

The game gets a five because overall it is pretty average. It would be higher if some of the enemies were more challenging and the bosses weren’t so impossible. If you want a side-scrolling fighter, try out the sequel to this one, Streets of Rage 2 or Streets of Rage 3. These are basically upgrades of Streets of Rage. They added more variety to the series.

Reviewer's Score: 5/10, Originally Posted: 01/06/01, Updated 01/06/01